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Prisoners taken report five regiments of infantry and 1,800 cavalry stationed at the bridge. This campaign is ended, and I now occupy Huntsville in perfect security; while in all of Alabama north of the Tennessee river floats no flag but that of the Union." The day following this engagement General Mitchel's troops crossed from the island to the main land, and captured two sixpounder cannon and their ammunition. A detachment was then sent out on the road to Chattanooga, and returned after having captured various stores, and a mail, and having destroyed a saltpetre manufactory in a cave. Another expedition penetrated to Jasper, "where," says General Mitchel, "the troops found a strong Union feeling. On the same day a skirmish occurred with the enemy's cavalry at Athens. Our outposts were driven back, but, on being reinforced, the enemy retreated in the direction of Florence. There are straggling bands of mounted men, partly citizens, along my entire line, threatening the bridges, one of which they succeeded in destroying."*

where, as we have stated, one of the the face of their fire, and saved the minor bridges of the railway had been bridge. From the island to the main destroyed, the advance brigade of Colo- shore we could not save it. It is of nel Sill crossed the stream by means of small moment, its length being but about cotton bales skillfully fastened together 450 feet. by rails running underneath the ropes, and laid on parallel lines nine or ten feet apart. Across these, boards were placed. providing a secure footing for troops and artillery. The brigade of Colonel Lytle presently joined the advance, and on the 29th General Mitchel, hearing that the enemy had cut the telegraph wires, and attacked, during the night, one of the brigades, left Huntsville to take the field in person. "I started," says he in a brief report after the engagement, to the Secretary of War, "by a train of cars in the morning, followed by two additional regiments of infantry and two companies of cavalry. I found that our pickets had engaged the enemy's pickets four miles from Bridgeport, and after a sharp engagement, in which we lost one man killed, drove them across a stream whose railway bridge I had burned. With four regiments of infantry, two pieces of artillery, dragged by hand, and two companies of cavalry, we advanced to the burnt bridge and opened our fire upon the enemy's pickets on the other side, thus producing the impression that our advance would be by the railway. This accomplished, the entire force was thrown across the country about a mile, and put on the road leading from Stevenson to Bridgeport. The middle column now advanced at a very rapid pace. Our scouts attacked those of the enemy and forced them from the Bridgeport road. We thus succeeded in making a complete surprise, immediately forming our line of battle on the crest of a wooded hill within five hundred yards of the works constructed to defend the bridge. At our first fire the rebels broke and ran. They attempted to blow up the main bridge but failed. They then attempted to fire the further extremity, but the volunteers, at my call, pushed forward in

Colonel Turchin, whose services are so often recorded in the dispatches of General Mitchel, was a native of Russia who had received a military education, and served in an important position in the army of his native land. He came to the United States in 1856, and was employed in Illinois in the engineer department of the Central railroad. At the breaking out of the rebellion he became Colonel of the 19th regiment of that State, and previous to the present campaign had served in Missouri and Kentucky. His name became widely known from the odium in which he was held by the Confederates, in consequence of the conduct of a portion of his command on aban

* General Mitchel to Secretary Stanton. Huntsville,

May 4, 1862.

GENERAL HALLECK'S ARMY.

437

doning Athens in Alabama. Under vio- where they had just achieved a victory, lent provocation, as it was alleged, the and summoned the available forces from citizens joining the enemy in pursuit of Missouri and elsewhere, in his wide dethe retiring Union troops, the latter re-partment. General Pope arrived at entered the town, and sacked and pillaged Hamburg on the Tennessee river, a few a number of houses, committing various miles above Pittsburg Landing, on the assaults upon the townspeople. Colonel 24th of April, and occupied with his diTurchin was put on trial before a court-vision the left of the Union army, of martial for the affair, but no evidence which Buell held the centre, and Genwas produced to show that he had order-eral Grant's forces the right. Among ed or countenanced any unlawful pro- the division and brigade officers in comceedings. In fact, while the investiga- mand were General T. L. Crittenden, tion was going on, so little was it thought General Thomas, of Mill Spring celebof at Washington that he was promoted rity, General Lewis Wallace, General to be brigadier-general of volunteers. J. A. Logan, of Illinois, General McClerThe next military movement of General nand, General W. T. Sherman, General Mitchel's division was an expedition un- Hurlbut, General McKean, General J. C. der Brigadier-General Commanding J. S. Davis, lately in command at Pea Ridge, Negley, from Pulaski on the Nashville and General T. W. Sherman, who had and Decatur railway, supported by a been recently superseded at Port Royal force under Colonel Lytle, from Athens, by General Hunter. The entire army, against a considerable rebel force at occupying a semicircular line of six miles Rogersville, east of Florence, on the from Owl creek to Chamber's creek, northerly side of the Tennessee river. numbered over a hundred thousand men, General Mitchel accompanied Colonel and the force of the enem vas thought Lytle, expecting an obstinate defence at at least to equal it in number. A genthe passage of the Elk; but "the enemy, eral movement toward Corinth was comas usual," says he, "fled at our ap- menced on the 29th April, when General proach." After some excellent artillery Sherman advanced to Monterey on Pea practice, General Negley entered Rogers- Ridge, over the main road taken by the ville, driving the enemy across the Ten- Confederates in their retreat. The next nessee, and destroying a portion of the day General Morgan L. Smith, with three ferry boats.* battalions of cavalry and a brigade of infantry, was sent on an expedition to cut off the enemy's northern communication by the Mobile and Ohio railroad. The rebels were found in considerable force in a piece of timber near Purdy, and while they were engaged by one portion of the attacking party, another under Colonel Dickey proceeded to destroy an important bridge of the railway. While the fire was consuming the timbers a train was heard approaching from the direction of Corinth. "Putting his men in ambush, Colonel Dickey soon captured a locomotive, with a conductor,

While General Mitchel was thus cutting off the enemy at Corinth from their eastern communication, General Halleck was disposing his forces for a sure advance from the vicinity of the late battle ground on the Tennessee. He found the troops, on his arrival, suffering from sickness and exposure, and the effects of the late series of conflicts. It was necessary that the army should be reorganized and strengthened by reinforcements. He called General Pope, with his entire command, from New Madrid and its vicinity,

* Huntsville, Ala., correspondence of the Cincinnati Ga- engineer, and four other persons, prison

zette. New York Evening Post, July 31, 1862.

*General Mitchel to Secretary Stanton. Huntsville, Ala., May 15, 1862.

ers.

He found an engineer among the cavalry, who ran the locomotive about

half a mile back from the bridge, fired the engine up to its utmost steam capacity, and started it for the bridge. At a fearful speed the unfortunate engine plunged into the ravine, where her disjected members are piled in hopeless destruction. From the prisoners it was ascertained that three trains heavily loaded with troops were expected hourly, and the engine had been sent to help them through. These troops had been sent from Memphis, by Humboldt and Jackson, the direct road being entirely occupied with transportation to Corinth. The destruction of the bridge deprived them of this road, and was an important step in the movements which are gradually but surely hemming in Beauregard's

army.

These preparatory movements were not unnoticed at Corinth, where they called forth an address to his army from General Beauregard, dated May 2d, in which it will be observed, he confidently relies on the numbers at his command, which had been greatly augmented by the withdrawal of the forces of Generals Price and Van Dorn from Arkansas, and the concentration of all available troops frem the south-west: "Soldiers of Shiloh and Elkhorn: We are about to meet once more, in the shock of battle, the invaders of our soil, the despoilers of our homes, the disturbers of our family ties, face to face, hand to hand. We are to decide whether we are to be freemen or vile slaves of those who are free only in name, and who but yesterday were vanquished, although in largely superior numbers, in their own encampments, on the ever memorable field of Shiloh. Let the impending battle decide our fate, and add a more illustrious page to the history of our revolution-one to which our children will point with noble pride, saying Our fathers were at the battle of Corinth.' I congratulate you on your timely junction. With your mingled

*Correspondence New York Herald. Camp near Monterey, May 1, 1862.

banners for the first time during this war, we shall meet our foe in strength that should give us victory. Soldiers, can the result be doubtful? Shall we not drive back into Tennessee the presumptuous mercenaries collected for our subjugation? One more manly effort, and, trusting in God and the justness of our cause, we shall recover more than we have lately lost. Let the sound of our victorious guns be re-echoed by those of the army of Virginia on the historic battle-field of Yorktown."

Good resolute words were not, indeed, often neglected in the Confederate army, where appeals of this kind, perhaps from the more susceptible nature of the combatants, seem to have been much relied on. General Bragg, accordingly, seconded the bulletin of his chief by an additional appeal to the corps which he commanded: "Soldiers: you are again about to encounter the mercenary invader who pollutes the sacred soil of our beloved country. Severely punished by you, and driven from his chosen positions, with a loss of his artillery and his honor, at Shiloh, when double your numbers, he now approaches cautiously and timidly, unwilling to advance, unable to retreat. Could his rank and file enjoy a freeman's right, not one would remain within our limits, but they are goaded on under a tyrant's lash by desperate leaders, whose only safety lies in success. Such a foe ought never to conquer freemen battling upon their own soil. You will encounter him in your chosen position, strong by nature, and improved by art, away from his main support and reliance-gunboats and heavy batteriesaud, for the first time in this war, with nearly equal numbers. The slight reverses we have met on the seaboard have worked us good as well as evil; the brave troops so long retained there have hastened to swell our numbers, while the gallant Van Dorn and invincible Price, with the ever successful "army of the West," are now in your midst with num

GENERAL POPE'S RECONNOISSANCE.

bers almost equaling the "army of Shiloh." We have, then, but to strike and destroy; and, as the enemy's whole resources are concentrated here, we shall not only redeem Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri at one blow, but open the portals of the whole north-west."

The real solicitude of the Confederates, anxious for the maintenance of their military possessions after the recent successes of the army and navy on the Mississippi, was shown in another order, a brief address of General Beauregard to the Southern planters, which was published in the Memphis papers on the 27th of April: "The casualties of war have opened the Mississippi to our enemies. The time has therefore come to test the earnestness of all classes, and I call on all patriotic planters owning cotton in the possible reach of our enemies to apply the torch to it without delay or hesita

tion."

439

front by regular siege, securing as he advanced all available points, and send out movable forces to cut the railways on the enemy's flank and rear. On the 3d of May, General Pope having advanced his forces on the left some ten miles by extraordinary exertions, ordered a reconnoissance toward Farmington, a commanding position four miles to the east of Corinth, on the edge of the swamp. "The enemy was found," he says in his dispatch the same day to the Secretary of War, " 4,500 strong, with four pieces of artillery and some cavalry, occupying a strong position near the town. Our forces advanced at once to the assault, and after a sharp skirmish carried the position in fine style. The enemy left thirty dead on the field, with their tents and baggage, our cavalry pursuing them. The whole affair was very handsome, our regiments charging the battery and their line of infantry at the double-quick. The enemy fled in wild confusion. Some regiments of cav

If proclamations could have won the day Corinth would have been secure. General Halleck relied on more demon-alry sent through to Booneville took posstrative arguments, as he advanced his session of the town, tore up the railroad force steadily toward the beleaguered track and destroyed two bridges. We city. Newly organizing the forces in the have a good many prisoners, but cannot field, the command of the army corps on tell how many yet. Our loss is two the right was given to Major-General killed and twelve wounded." The Union Thomas; General Buell continued to troops in this engagement, mainly comhold the centre, General Pope the left, posed of Illinois and Michigan regiments, while the reserve was assigned to Gen- were commanded by General E. A. eral McClernand. General Grant was Paine, a West Point officer from Ohio, second in command under General Hal- who had recently been engaged in the leck. From the nature of the ground operations of Island No. 10. The advanand the disadvantage of the weather, the tage of the day was maintained in the army necessarily made slow progress. occupation of Farmington, General Pope The roads over the uneven, wooded stationing the brigade of General Palmcountry to the vicinity of Corinth, broken er, an Illinois officer of volunteers, as an up, and, as far as possible, obstructed by advanced guard at that place. On the the enemy, were rendered still more dif- 9th the enemy came out in superior ficult of passage by the continuous rains force, and compelled the brigade to reof the season; while the enemy were im- tire after a warm contest. A few days mediately protected by the deep marshes after, Farmington was reoccupied by the surrounding their position. General Hal- Union troops preparatory to the advance leck, conscious of the interests at stake, to that point, on the 17th, of General moved cautiously and deliberately. His Pope's entire command. plan was to approach the works on the

It was about this time, on the 13th of

May, that an order was issued by General Halleck-in consequence, it was said, of information of his movements reaching the enemy through civilians in the camp -which enjoined commanders of army corps and divisions "to see that their camps are cleared of all unauthorized hangers on," under penalty to those attempting to evade the regulation, of working on the entrenchments and batteries, or in the construction of roads. This stringent decree was understood to .nclude the newspaper reporters or correspondents who abounded in the camp, and who were consequently compelled to retire; not, however, without a protest signed by the leading representatives of the press of the eastern and western States, who thought it hard that their vocation should be thus summarily interrupted on the eve of an engagement which they had come to describe. General Halleck, however, was inexorable; he had suffered from spies, and would have no civilians in the camp. The following journalists signed a statement of the affair which was published: Thomas W. Knox, F. G. Chapman, P. Tallman, of the New York Herald; A. R. Richardson, New York Tribune; F. B. Wilkie, New York Times; G. C. Coffin, Boston Journal; A. Ware, Philadelphia Press; J. W. Reid and C. F. Gilbert, of the Cincinnati Gazette; J. B. McCullogh, of the Cincinnati Commercial; G. W. Beamen and T. A. Post, Missouri Democrat; W. E. Webb, Missouri Republican; and R. J. Hinton, Chicago Tribune.

On the 20th General Halleck commenced regular siege operations by a series of entrenchments investing Corinth on the north and east, at about four miles distance, an interval which was gradually narrowed by second and third parallels, till the Union force, on the 27th, well protected, and with batteries of heavy guns, were within 1,300 yards of the rebel works. The next day a general reconnoisance was made of the

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enemy's position. "Three strong columns, telegraphed General Halleck that day to the war department, "advanced on the right, centre, and left, to feel the enemy and unmask his batteries. The enemy hotly contested his ground at each point, but was driven back with considerable loss. The column on the left encountered the strongest opposition. Our loss is twenty-five killed and wounded. The enemy left thirty dead on the field. Our losses at other points are not yet ascertained. Some five or six officers and a number of privates were captured. The fighting will probably be renewed to-morrow at daybreak. The whole country is so thickly wooded that we are compelled to feel our way." The fight was renewed on the morrow by General Pope, in the forenoon opening his heavy batteries, and driving the enemy from their advanced batteries. General Sherman also established another battery in the afternoon within one thousand yards of the rebel works. "I had then,' says the latter, in his official report of these operations, "my whole division in a slightly curved line, facing south; my right resting on the Mobile and Ohio railroad, near a deep cut known as Bowie Hill cut, and left resting on the main Corinth road, at the crest of the ridge, there connecting with General Hurlbut, who, in turn, on his left, connected with General Davies, and so on down the whole line to its extremity. So near was the enemy that we could hear the sound of his drums, and sometimes of voices in command, and the railroad cars arriving and departing at Corinth were easily distinguished. For some days and nights, cars had been arriving and departing very frequently, especially in the night; but last night (29th), more so than usual, and my suspicions were aroused. Before daybreak, I instructed the brigade commanders, and the field officer of the day, to feel forward as far as possible, but all reported the enemy's pickets still in force in the dense woods

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